Andrey Rublyov

„medieval epic, based on the life of the Russian monk and icon painter”,

„an unflinching gaze at medieval Russia during the first quarter of the 15th century, a period of Mongol-Tartar invasion and growing Christian influence”,

„one of the most important Russian films over the past two or three decades”,

„One of cinema’s stunning achievements. If God ever watched a movie, he might as well pick this one.”

„One of the best films about an artist, if not the best.”

„A strange and most challenging film, Andrei Rublev is a dreamy, sooty, black-and-white chronicle set against early 15th century Russian history. Tarkovsky is fascinated with images of nature, animals, natural processes, and he allows them to add another layer of meaning to the human strife playing out in the foreground. I’m not sure what Rublev is completely about but the trick is to ride along with it, as it soon becomes a beautiful and wondrous sort of cinematic experience, played out against the rhythms of galloping horses or the falling rain, and the veil-like shrouds of rain and snow. Tarkovsky’s parable concerns the titular monk-painter struggling with reconciling his relationship with the church and his own personal morality, with the purpose of art in the midst of so much injustice and turmoil. Intimate and grittily shot, this isn’t so much a biopic (Rublev sometimes isn’t even directly involved in much of the action, rather just an observer swept up in the tide of historical events), so much as a philosophical tract as pondered by its director over its long but always hypnotic telling.” (by Jay Antani)

„it also stuns with the sort of unexpected poetic explosions we’ve come to expect from Tarkovsky”

„It’s Tarkovsky’s lighter touches, coupled with his majestic vision, that makes Andrei Rublev such compulsive viewing some 25 years after its original release.”